"Sanitary Investigation of Factories and Plants of Smolensk Province" 
(two issues), compiled by D. Zhbankov, provides a detailed description of all 
major enterprises in the province, as well as their enumeration according to 
data from 1890. Zhbankov's investigation was carefully studied by Lenin, as 
evidenced by the numerous remarks he made on the pages of both issues of 
this book.

Lenin studies all the factories and plants of the province in detail, comparing 
the author's information with figures from other sources, first and foremost 
with the "Index of Factories and Plants" for 1890. The enumeration — the list 
of factories and plants of the province — occupies as many as 45 pages in the 
first issue of Zhbankov's investigation; the list mentions approximately 500 
enterprises. For each of them Lenin provides information in the margins about 
the sum of production (thousand rubles) or data on output in kind (poods, 
thousands of bricks, thousands of buckets, etc.) and data on the number of 
workers at these enterprises. Moreover, Lenin supplements the enumeration with 
new factories and plants omitted by the author.

On the basis of his own independent calculations, Lenin determined that 
Smolensk Province in 1890 had 264 factories and plants; the sum of production 
constituted 9,575 thousand rubles; the number of workers — 7,794. The 
distribution of these enterprises by individual types of production is given on 
p. 28. The result of the calculation and the reference to page 28 are recorded 
by Lenin at the beginning of the book:

According to the "Index" of 1890, in total in Smolensk Province 264—
9,573 thousand — 7,791. Distribution of them see p. 28.

## SANITARY INVESTIGATION
OF FACTORIES AND PLANTS OF SMOLENSK PROVINCE

D. N. ZHBANKOV — ISSUES I AND II — SMOLENSK 1894 AND 1896

Division of factories and plants by individual branches of industry:

1. There are 4 cotton-spinning and weaving mills in the province, but the number 
of workers at one of them, the Yartsevo mill, is so large that it constitutes 
more than one-third of all workers engaged in factory-plant industry in Smolensk 
Province. Two weaving mills with 20 workers are located in Gzhatsk district 
and two in Dukhovshchina district; at one of them there are 25 and at the other, 
Yartsevo, 3,106 workers...

Upon reviewing detailed descriptions of factories and plants by individual branches 
of production, Lenin marks especially striking and typical examples characterizing 
the position of workers in production, the material conditions of their life, etc.

## A. GLASS AND CRYSTAL PLANTS

**I. Voroshilov or Catherinian Crystal Plant of I. L. Sokolov**

...Children are hired at the plant only from age 12, and not by the plant but by 
the masters themselves, all of whom need apprentices and who pay the children 
wages from their own earnings...

...All the huts, with the exception of 4—6, were built a very long time ago, partly 
by the owners themselves, partly by workers while still under serfdom. To build 
the huts, workers borrowed money from the landlord, and even now two or three 
families are still paying for their fathers and grandfathers and owe the plant 
60—150 rubles. Later (when?) the huts were taken from the workers, and no more 
than 25 rubles was paid for each, whereas their construction cost more than 100 
rubles... The huts have 2—4 windows each. In all huts it is very cold in winter, 
and one can warm oneself only by the stove...

...workers are obliged to take all necessary products from the shop, since they are 
given very little cash in hand, and therefore they are forced to take products 
from the factory shop on account. Products are issued from the shop only twice a 
month, on the first and middle days; if a worker needs something at another time, 
he must strongly petition the office for a special note authorizing him to receive 
the necessary products... All products from the shop are issued at a higher price 
than local prices, ostensibly to cover transportation costs; for example: pork lard 
at 23 kopecks per pound, sugar at 19 kopecks, tea at 1 ruble 60 kopecks to 1 
ruble 65 kopecks, and retail at 1 ruble 68 kopecks, whereas at the shop in the 
village of Rudnya one verst from the plant the price for lard is 20 kopecks, sugar 
16—17, etc. Vodka from the tavern is also issued at a higher price and of worse 
quality: a bottle in it costs 40 kopecks, whereas in the tavern in the village of 
Rudnya 35 kopecks. The plant gives workers very little money and rarely, not 
more than 4—6 times a year; only in exceptional cases can a worker, enjoying 
special trust, manage to beg for 1—2 rubles at another time. Due to lack of money, 
besides the losses described above, workers suffer another special loss: to 
shoemakers, peasants working their meadows, etc., workers pay not with money but 
with products taken from the factory shop; these products are accepted from them 
in payment at a cheaper price; for example: 1 pound of sugar for 14 kopecks 
instead of 19 kopecks paid by the workers themselves, pounds of rye flour instead 
of 75 kopecks for 50 kopecks, etc...

**II. New Derebuzh Crystal Plant of N. A. Sokolov**

...in many huts the ceilings leak, many windows are broken and boarded up, the 
floors have completely settled, the boards sag, and from the cellar, into which 
liquid drains from the yards, a stench rises into the huts...

**III. Mariinskii Kamenetskii Crystal Plant of P. L. Sokolov**

NB

i.e. and for firewood 
and for rent?

It should be 
only for rent. 
See p. 72

...All the machines are operated by water power, for which belt drives go to the 
wheels; these drives run above and in those places where they descend to the 
wheels, they are rather low and at the slightest carelessness can strike the head 
of a passing person of even average height. In the grinding section is separated a 
small room where three large machines stand, also operated by drives; under these 
machines it is very dirty. There are as many as 150 workers in this section...

...There are no factory baths, but only 10—12 baths built by the workers themselves, 
as in Derebuzh, which are used by all workers, bathing several families at a time. 
All factory huts are provided with firewood, and for this the plant deducts 1 ruble 
per month from a family, if there are 2 in one hut, or 2 rubles when one family 
occupies the entire hut. The huts have small vegetable gardens for workers; 
farther away from the huts there are larger gardens for potatoes...

**Rules of Internal Order...**

5. Use of vegetable gardens, pasture, and meadows is free; for quarters 2% of 
wages are collected and for firewood 5 rubles per cubic sazhens.

6. For faulty work, breach of order, the guilty parties are subjected to a fine 
from 1 to 3 rubles at the discretion of the administration, depending on the 
severity of the offense.

11. The plant has a shop from which workers, if they wish, may purchase items of 
necessary provisions at local prices.

**D. Priselskii Glass Plant at village Leshchiki of I. I. Gurevich**

...Payment of wages is made twice a month, but the majority receive not money but 
provisions; only the Vilna dish masters receive money weekly, and purchase supplies 
in Roslavl, for which they hire a transport, and nevertheless, despite this expense, 
all food provisions cost them less than from the factory shop...

There is no school at the plant, and therefore among the boys there are far more 
illiterate than at other plants. Workers declared that they themselves would not 
mind making a certain contribution to maintain a school.

**D. Norzhansk Glass Plant of A. V. Mukhin**

**Rules of Internal Order...**

5. On holidays and Sundays workers living in factory premises may be absent in 
summer and winter whenever they wish. On working days and hours, however, they 
may only be absent with the permission of the superintendent.

*Much too brief! Editor*

**VII. Novoselsk Glass Plant of I. S. Nechayev-Malyaev**

**Rules of Internal Order...**

11. Workers who organize a strike among themselves to stop work with the aim of 
compelling the owner to raise their wages or to change other conditions are subject 
to liability under the law; especially strictly are the instigators and agitators 
persecuted.

## B. CHEESEMAKING ESTABLISHMENTS

**I. Cheesemaking Establishment of M. A. Meshcherskaya at village Dugino**

**Information about workers.** All workers, except the chief cheesemaker, 20 at 
the first and 9 at the second farmstead... The number of working hours for the 
cheesemakers is difficult to determine, since the work is undefined and continues 
all day and night, but usually it is carried out in snatches and they take turns 
resting and spend on meals, breakfast, and sleep about 7—8 hours; consequently, 
working hours will be 17—16 per day. Holidays are not observed; the making of 
cheese and its care in the cellars must be carried out daily...

**Cheesemaking Establishment of Mme Jukler**

...For churning butter there are two machines, one manual and another operating 
by means of a drive from a treadmill; the treadmill is a large wheel driven in 
motion by two women who, standing on the wheel itself, perform stepping movements 
and, not moving from their place, tread and turn the wheel...

Lenin everywhere calculates how many working days per year there are at one or 
another enterprise. On the basis of the factory rules of internal order of the 
butter mill of the Khokhlov brothers (issue II, p. 192), Lenin calculates the 
holidays listed in point 5 and determines the number of non-working days (holidays 
and Sundays):

33 — 52 (? apparently) = 85